COMMUNITY-BASED JOBS REPORT

Workshops still get most federal funds for disabled

Help wanted: Jobs for the disabled

Thousands of adults with Down syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities work in Ohio at jobs that pay less money than a teen-age babysitter earns. Some say the low pay is immoral; others view the federal law as a godsend.

More Articles

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoFILE PHOTOKathleen Notestine gets help from Tonya Porter, left, at ARC Industries North, a sheltered workshop on the North Side that employs people with developmental disabilities.

Despite public policy favoring community-based jobs, federal money to help the developmentally
disabled often lands in a sheltered workshop.

A report released today by the National Disability Rights Network describes a “complex and
confusing system” in Ohio and elsewhere that has long pumped millions of dollars into segregated
programs, even as advocates and government officials work to promote more community employment.

“The part that’s very hard to get your hands around is how the money flows,” said Curt Decker,
executive director of the advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. “It supports these
workshops, sometimes inadvertently.”

The report says that Ohio spent an estimated $5 million in federal, state and local funds on
community employment for people with developmental disabilities last year. That compares with about
$175 million on segregated settings such as sheltered workshops, where many workers earn a fraction
of the minimum wage, the report says.

It also cites a
Dispatch story last year that found that 70 percent of the 21,000 Ohioans with
disabilities who were employed and receiving services from county boards worked in sheltered
workshops. About 80 percent were making less than $3.70 an hour.

Officials agree that Ohio needs to do more to boost community employment, but they said the
spending comparison is off-target.

The sheltered workshops get more money because they also are sites for adult day services, which
might include personal care, living skills and other services. Federal Medicaid money pays most of
the tab, and the reimbursement rates are higher for people with more-significant disabilities.

Supported employment in the community costs less — $9,600 per person annually compared with
$22,000 in sheltered workshops, according to the state. County officials say community-based
workers sometimes have milder disabilities and need only a job coach for a few hours each day or
week.

“It’s an apples-to-oranges comparison,” said Jed Morison, the superintendent of the Franklin
County Board of Developmental Disabilities. “You have very diverse needs of people in the
workshops, and everybody is not the same.”

Morison and others said they’re pleased that Gov. John Kasich is making community employment a
focus.

Kasich signed an executive order last month that established a task force that is to expand
community employment opportunities for Ohioans with developmental disabilities. And a new
Medicaid-funded waiver available later this year will allow recipients to use money to help them
find and maintain community employment.

John Martin, the director of the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, said in an email
yesterday that Ohio is “moving aggressively forward in making employment the preferred option
rather than sheltered or segregated environments.”

However, Martin said, the change has to be incremental and careful so that families don’t lose
effective and popular services. “It’s really about empowering people to make choices,” he said.

Decker thinks workshop supervisors might be better used as job coaches and job-placement
coordinators helping clients with community work.

“We’ve been accused of trying to put these (organizations) out of business. We’re not saying
that,” he said. “We’re saying, ‘Change your business model.’ ’’